Jared Leto Nabs Another Comic Book Role As Morbius: The Living Vampire

by Erik Amaya

Not content to be the in-continuity Joker, actor Jared Leto has found his way to another comic book universe with another leading role.

Variety reports Leto will play the title role in Sony’s Morbius: The Living Vampire after circling the project for many months. Created in 1971 by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane, the character was designed as a tragic and sympathetic antagonist for the Webhead — a recurring feature of Spider-Man comics — in his initial story and would go on to appear in a number of other titles before finally getting a book of his own in 1992. The victim of a rare blood disorder, Dr. Micheal Morbius’s research into his condition inadvertently gave him vampire-like powers and a craving for hemoglobin. Never finding a cure, he eventually found himself part of Marvel’s supernatural roster alongside the likes of Mephisto and Ghost Rider.

Life director Daniel Espinosa will direct from a script by Lost in Space‘s Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama. According to Variety’s recent report, Leto met with Espinosa last month to ascertain the film aligned with his own needs as a performer. Apparently, their visions for the character and film were compatible.

Erik Amaya

Host of Tread Perilously and a Film/TV Writer at Comicon.com and Rotten Tomatoes. A former staff writer at CBR and Bleeding Cool, and a contributing writer at Fanbase Press and Monkeys Fighting Robots. Voice of Puppet Tommy on The Room Responds. A seeker of the Seastone Chair and the owner of a Legion Flight Ring. Sorted into Gryffindor, which came as some surprise.